With the exception of some touch up our caulking of the front deck and sides down to the steps is done. Yes I know we were going to cool it and not work yesterday but our plastic rain covers started coming apart from the wind so we finished up masking and started laying down caulk just after lunch. We worked until about 8 PM and got about three quarters done before our bodies gave out. Thank goodness the rain held out. This morning we finished the job about 1 minute before the rain started. Whew, that was a close one. While the dew was burning off this morning I did take off some masking in the area we caulked yesterday and most everything looks good. Maybe some touch up here or there but not bad for a couple of amatures.
From here we take off the rest of the masking tomorrow, wait a few days and sand the high spots off. At some point I will also have to fix a few spots where the caulk sagged too much and 3 or 4 small areas where I missed towards the end last night.
So here are the steps. 1. Clean the deck areas to be caulked. 2. Use a mild acid to brighten and deep cleaning. 3. Mask. 4. Caulk. 5. Take off masking. 6. Fix imperfections. 7. Sand off high spots. 8 Fix imperfections. 9. Sand said imperfections.
All done? Nope. There are many dowels that need to be replaced as the expansion and contraction of the deck have loosened them in there holes. These dowels cover the countersunk screws that hold the deck down and prevent water from leaking down into the subdeck. Bad deal as the decks then become spongy. When we were looking at boats of this type they fell into categories. Spongy decks with teak coverings or solid decks that had been replaced $$,$$$$. And, very, very few with teak coverings with solid underpinnings. The 'Belle' was one of the few with decent teak and solid a substrate. All this work is intended to keep it that way. It was hard last night at 8 o'clock when we were too tired to eat but it will all be worth it in the end.
All of this work has been quite a show for our stable mates here in the marina as most people have contractors do the work on their boats. It's like a traffic jam in the morning as the boat cleaners, mechanical dudes and electrical guys come down and keep the fleet going. This is not the best place to look for advice on this or that from other boat owners.
As a final word, many of you may ask is all this work worth it? Why don't you get a newer boat without the teak and not a traveling 30 year old antique? Stupid? Glutton for punishment? Perhaps but wherever we go people keep telling us what a beautiful boat the Belle is. It's the wood, the old school styling and the condition we keep the boat in. While there is great personal satisfaction for us in keeping something old looking good those compliments are icing on the cake.
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